sign in sign up
<<
Home , Feminist literature, Toril Moi

FEMINIST

A Reader

Second Edition

Edited by Mary Eagleton

P u b I i s h e r s Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgements xv

1 Finding a Female Tradition Introduction 1 Extracts from: A Room of One's Own 9 Literary Women ELLEN MOERS 10 A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing ELAINE SHOW ALTER 14 'What Has Never Been: An Overview of Lesbian Feminist ' BONNIE ZIMMERMAN 18 'Compulsory Heterosexuality andXesbian Existence' ADRIENNE RICH 24 'Saving the Life That Is Your Own: The Importance of Models in the Artist's Life ALICE WALKER 30 Title Essay In Search of Our ' Gardens ALICE WALKER 33 Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory CHRIS WEEDON 36 'Race and Gender in the Shaping of the American Literary Canon: A Case Study from the Twenties' PAUL LAUTER 39 Women's Oppression Today: Problems in Marxist Feminist Analysis MICHELE BARRETT 45 'Writing "Race" and the Difference it Makes' HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR 46 'Parables and Politics: Feminist Criticism in 1986' NANCY K. MILLER 48 Reading : Essays in Feminist Criticism MARY JACOBUS 51 'Happy Families? Feminist Reproduction and Matrilineal Thought' LINDA R. WILLIAMS 52 'What Women's Eyes See' VIVIANE FORRESTER 56 'Women and Madness: The Critical Phallacy' SHOSHANA FELMAN 58 vi CONTENTS

'French in an International Frame' GAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK 59 Feminist Literary History: A Defence JANET TODD 62

2 Women and Literary Production Introduction 66 Extracts from: A Room of One's Own VIRGINIA WOOLF 73 'Professions for, Women' VIRGINIA WOOLF 78 Silences TILLIE OLSEN 80 'When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision' ADRIENNE RICH 84 The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination SANDRA M. GILBERT and SUSAN GUBAR 91 Consuming Fiction TERRY LOVELL 99 Reviewing the Reviews: A Woman's Place on the Book Page WOMEN IN PUBLISHING 100 'Paradoxes and Dilemmas, the Woman as Writer' 103 .'Emily Bronte in the Hands of Male Critics' CAROL OHMANN 105 'Naming the Fictions' ELIZABETH BAINES 109 'Christina Rossetti: Diary of a Feminist Reading' ISOBEL ARMSTRONG 111 'Conversations' HELENE CIXOUS et al. 114 'Writing Like a Woman: A Question of Politics' TERRY LOVELL 118 The Rise of the Woman Novelist: From Aphra Behn to Jane Austen JANE SPENCER 120 'Toward a Black Feminist Criticism' BARBARA SMITH 122 'Black Woman Talk' BLACK WOMAN TALK COLLECTIVE - 127 Editor's Introduction Let It Be Told: Essays by Black Women in Britain LAURETTA NGCOBO 128 'A Press of One's Own'CATH JACKSON 129 'Bad Apple' JOAN SCANLON and JULIA SWINDELLS 131

3 Gender and Genre Introduction 137 Extracts from: Feminist Literary Studies: An Introduction K. K. RUTHVEN 144 A Room of One's Own VIRGINIA WOOLF 145 The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding IAN WATT 147 Consuming Fiction TERRY LOVELL 149 Literary Women ELLEN MOERS 152 ', Narrative and Psychoanalysis' JULIET MITCHELL 154 CONTENTS vii

Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel NANCY ARMSTRONG 158 'The Buried Letter: Feminism and Romanticism in Villette' MARY JACOBUS 161 Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion ROSEMARY JACKSON 162 'Representation vs. Communication' ELIZABETH COWIE, CLAIRE JOHNSTON, CORA KAPLAN, MARY KELLY, JACQUELINE ROSE, MARIE YATES 164 Beyond : Feminist Literature and Social Change RITA FELSKI 165 ' "Spiritual Whoredom": An Essay on Female Prophets in the Seventeenth Century' CHRISTINE BERG and PHILIPPA BERRY 169 'The Impact of Feminism on the Theatre' MICHELENE WANDOR 171 Editors' Introduction Shakespeare's Sisters: Feminist Essays on Women Poets SANDRA M. GILBERT and SUSAN GUBAR 174 Editor's Introduction Elizabeth Barrett Browning Aurora Leigh and Other Poems CORA KAPLAN 180 Editor's Introduction Daring to Dream: Utopian Stories by United States Women, 1836-1919 CAROL FARLEY KESSLER 183 In the Chinks of the World Machine: Feminism and SARAH LEFANU 187 Female Desire: Women's Sexuality Today ROSALIND COWARD 189 'Mass Market Romance: Pornography for Women is Different' ANN BARR SNITOW 192 'Women Read the Romance: The Interaction of Text and Context' JANICE A. RADWAY 199 Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism Between the Wars ALISON LIGHT 205 Feminist Fiction: Feminist Uses of Generic Fiction ANNE CRANNY-FRANCIS 209

4 Towards Definitions of Feminist Writing Introduction . 213 Extracts from: ' "This Novel Changes Lives": Are Women's Novels Feminist Novels? A Response to Rebecca O'Rourke's Article "Summer Reading" ' ROSALIND COWARD 221 'Feminism and the Definition of Cultural Politics' MICHELE BARRETT 226 'New Directions for Black Feminist Criticism' DEBORAH E. MCDOWELL 230 'American Feminist Literary Criticism: A Bibliographical Introduction' CHERI REGISTER 236 'Feminism and the Literary Critic' ALISON LIGHT 242 'Speaking/Writing/Fetninism' CORA KAPLAN 245 viii CONTENTS

Mirror Writing: An Autobiography ELIZABETH WILSON 247 'Dancing Through the Minefield: Some Observations on the Theory, Practice and Politics of a Feminist Literary Criticism' ANNETTE KOLODNY 250 'Toward a Feminist Poetics' 254 Sexual/ Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory TORIL MOI 257 Gynesis: Configurations of Woman and Modernity ALICE A. JARDINE 260 'Feminism and Deconstruction' MARY POOVEY 262 'Woman Can Never Be Defined' 267 'Social Criticism Without Philosophy: An Encounter between Feminism and Postmodernism' NANCY FRASER and LINDA J. NICHOLSON 268 'Flight Reservations: The Anglo-American/French Divide in Feminist Criticism' RACHEL BOWLBY 271 'The Race for Theory' BARBARA CHRISTIAN 274 'Postmodern Blackness' Yearning: Race, Gender and Cultural Politics 280

5 Writing, Reading and Difference Introduction 284 Extracts from: 'Is There a Female Voice? Joyce Carol Oates Replies' JOYCE CAROL OATES 292 Literary Women ELLEN MOERS 293 Thinking About Women MARY ELLMANN 295 'Writing Like a Woman' PEGGY KAMUF 298 Reading Woman: Essays in Feminist Criticism MARY JACOBUS 299 'Talking about Polylogue'1 JULIA KRISTEVA 301 The Resisting Reader JUDITH FETTERLEY 303 'Reading as a Woman' JONATHAN CULLER 306 'Reading like a Man' ROBERT SCHOLES 309 The Sexual Fix STEPHEN HEATH 311 'The Powers of Discourse and the Subordination of the Feminine' LUCE IRIGARAY 316 'The Laugh of the Medusa' HELENE CIXOUS 320 'Castration or Decapitation?' HELENE QXOUS 322 'A Feminine Economy: Some Preliminary Thoughts' JUDITH STILL 325 'For the Etruscans: Sexual Difference and Artistic Production - The Debate over a Female Aesthetic' FRANCES JAFFER quoted by RACHEL BLAU DUPLESSIS 327 'Enslaved Enclave' CATHERINE CLEMENT 327 CONTENTS ix

'Writing the Body: Toward An Understanding of "L'Ecriture Feminine" ' ANN ROSALIND JONES 328 'Love, Mourning and Metaphor: Terms of Identity' KADIATU KANNEH 331 'Language and Revolution: The Franco-American Dis-Connection' DOMNA C. STANTON . 335 'Variations on Common Themes' EDITORIAL COLLECTIVE OF QUESTIONS FEMINISTES 337

6 Locating the Subject Introduction 339 Extracts from: 'A Question of Subjectivity: An Interview' JULIA KRISTEVA. 351 'Femininity and its Discontents' JACQUELINE ROSE 353 Critical Practice CATHERINE BELSEY 357 Feminine'Fictions: Revisiting the Postmodern PATRICIA WAUGH 360 'Feminism, Humanism and Postmodernism' KATE SOPER 364 Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity 367 'Feminism and the Question of Postmodernism' SEYLA BENHABIB 373 ' versus Post-structuralism: The Identity Crisis in ' LINDA ALCOFF 378 'Upping the Anti (sic) in Feminist Theory' TERESA DE LAURETIS 382 Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature and Difference DIANA FUSS 385 'Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses' 388 Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism TRINH T. MINH-HA _. 394 'A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and in the 1980s' DONNA HARAWAY 399 Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestizo GLORIA ANZALDUA 404 'The Straight Mind' 408 Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory Rosi BRAIDOTTI 411

Bibliography of Extracts 421

Index 429